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Sweden 2010, off-island Adventures
Aloha!
9/28/10 - Some things are so monotonous and part of daily life that we never really think about them. Like turning on the kitchen sink or flipping a light switch, they remain completely anonymous until no longer at our beck and call. Simple things, such as, say, going for nearly three weeks without white rice - not something us locals ever need to experience. Or one I've never thought of before - not having hot foods for extended periods of time! In Hawaii, we'll have Portuguese sausage 'n eggs for breakfast, plate lunch or bento for lunch, and steak for dinner without batting an eye - all hot foods, 3X a day! Here in all three countries of Scandinavia visited on this trip, it wasn't just the fact that it was sandwich after sandwich, nor was it about the plethora of pickled herring, smoked salmon, cured hams, cheeses, and root vegetables in brine or vinegar, all respectable foods in themselves. No, underlying them all was a creeping vacancy in our stomachs only identified after a good while - they were all cold or room temperature! Ooops - I guess room temperature, at least in Scandinavia, is cold! Either way, it was an extremely odd and unexplainable type of craving I've never had to think about before, much less experience! I mean, it's not that every single meal was cold. Dinners, for one, are traditionally hot everywhere, but with two out of three meals in Norway, sometimes more, often being cold, it began taking its toll after a while.
Of the three countries, however, it is actually the Swedes who eat hot foods more than the other two - thank goodness! By our first night in Sweden, in the big city of Goteborg (or Gothenborg), we were beginning to cut loose a bit culinarily (we were mostly held back because of cost concerns!), even venturing on a mini restaurant-hopping excursion, just like we do at home!
Sidewalk cafes are popular everywhere in Scandinavia, whether for coffee and pastries in the morning, sandwiches for lunch, or alcohol at dusk. By the time we sat down at roughtly 5pm, it was already at least an hour into prime-time for sidewalk cafes like these, in just one of the busy squares found all over the city. I really like the fact that so many people gather everywhere in such a leisurely manner, a glass of wine or beer seemingly mandatory, with everyone slowing down to build relationships, forge business ties, or just have fun while shootin' the breeze - all just as important as the other, yes?
Later in the evening, with spots just like this lining the bottom level of almost every building on a main street, we said eenie-meenie and popped into a spot we later found had some pretty good reviews, Brasserie Lipp:
Now, I'm not gonna lie to ya's. A lot of these sidewalk cafes, especially the ones primarily acting as bars, are terrible when it comes to cuisine, including the one we just came from. Brasserie Lipp, however, was much more sophisticated, as you can probably tell from these next few shots:
Super-fresh salmon almost like we'd find at home, the only exception being a slightly vinegared soy sauce.
Once again, these oysters were as fresh as could be and similiar to what we'd find at home, with the acception of an extra-tart balsamic vinegar sauce.
That's what aahm talkim' bout. Lots going-on here. Cute-little berries, caviar, a little toast for starch, a drizzling of oil, a pinch of salt 'n pepper, sprig of dill, and a beautiful mix of chanterelle mushrooms, onions, and herbs in cream sauce - delicious and classy!
This is a favorite found all over Scandinavia - mussels 'n frites. Might not seem like it from the pic, but this was actually a giant bowl, both wide and deep enough to halt our possible visit to yet another restaurant afterwards! They weren't the biggest of mussels, in fact, they were pretty darn small, but more importantly, they were fresh and tasty, coming steamed/simmered in a deliciously light wine garlic broth.
Goteborg is a beautiful city, the second-largest in Sweden and often self-proclaimed as the real capital of the country, not Stockholm over on the opposite coast!
Here's a few shots of the city, including a cool store specializing in all types of olive oil, a nice fishmarket in a mall, a ferris wheel, and a couple of typical street shots:
Outside of sidewalk cafes, there's one thing you simply have to try while dining anywhere in Scandinavia, and the great thing about it is - you won't break the bank! Here and there, you'll find a steady supply of great shawarma spots, whether they be of Turkish, Jewish, Moroccan, Greek, or whatever origin, this one located just in front of a college and right at the entrance of the old part of town:
And no wonder it's fronting a college, as meals here go for as little as 40 Swedish kroner's, or just over US $5 - a bargain in this part of the world! This jolly fellow presided over a shop also featuring other typical street foods popular here - hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages, and fries, along with the more traditional-minded shawarma's of various types:
Of course, when I say traditional, I don't mean traditional from a Swedish stand-point! No, these are imported items, brought-over from a myriad of Middle Eastern, African, and central Asian countries, and have become just as much a part of the culinary landscape here as a Chinese or Vietnamese eatery is in the islands. And when I say shawarma's of various types, I mean that there are naturally huge variations between the many countries that feature this dish, many using lamb while others use beef or even chicken, turkey, or goat, all seasoned in their own ways. There's also a host of different flatbreads used to encase the meats (along with veggies and sauces), whether they be called pita, chapati, naan, or laffa.
Meats are typically cooked in gigantic, whole-rump-sized sections that are placed on a giant rotating stick, surrounded on a few sides by heat, which cooks the meat as it spins on its axis. Like Brazilian buffets, outer slices of the tower are carved-out after being cooked, revealing successive portions of under-cooked meat underneath, in a process repeated over and over again until nothing is left. Some say you can almost judge a shawarma spot by the size of their meat towers, as a large tower(s) full of meat equals popularity. I see the logic. Here's a a couple of different shawarma types, one with a thicker bread sliced like a pita and the other a laffa version, looking very much like a burrito, both coming with lamb sliced right off the tower:
Faced with only a single night in huge and vibrant Goteborg, we left first thing in the morning on one of the many ferries connecting major cities and countries here. With so much water in Scandinavia, boats large and small are almost as much a part of daily life as buses and trains. This particular ship was a floating city much, much larger than even our Hurtigruten cruiser in Norway, and we were amazed exploring the giant vessels comforts, such as a full-sized grocery store, restaurants, a mini-casino, and live entertainment featuring locals mostly doing classic 80's hits! Cheesy, yes, but oh, so catchy and fun!
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After the almost 5-hour boat ride into Frederikshavn, Denmark, we then traveled south through the country, over-nighting in four different cities in five days. From there, we re-entered Sweden, and from the moment we stepped off our train into Stockholm's busy city center, we knew that despite what locals in Goteborg were saying, it was clearly apparent that Stockholm was big dog in this particular country, with a faster, more frenetic energy and a greater density of people, at least in the city proper.
The only downside was that, besides when faced with more than one drunkard in Denmark, looking very much crazy but nevertheless not especially dangerous, this was the only city where I felt we needed to watch ourselves, at least a little bit, Kumi also concurring. Nothing really bad, though. It's just that in places we've visited, like most of Scandinavia, New Zealand, and Japan, you don't worry much at all about walking down a quiet alley. In Stockholm, however, for the first time in our trip, I began noticing the looks and body languages that spoke of a few shady characters looking for easy opportunities, if you know what I mean. Like I said, nothing really overt like big-city-USA and not nearly as threatening, but more just a small reminder of petty crimes like pick-pocketing or other forms of thievery. To be fair, I felt this way mainly in the train station area, train stations being notorious the world over, and not in the places we actually spent time in, which were the historical sections of both Goteborg and Stockholm.
Anyhow, it was Stockholm's old city section that was easily the most impressive we've seen in all of Scandinavia, as far as architecture, preservation, sheer scope, and general cool-ness goes. Like a giant castle surrounded by a moat, the mini-island of Gamla Stan is a National Treasure, its maze of cobblestone streets, the smallest being a mere 35 inches at its narrowest point, winding through buildings that have been around for centuries. Kumi and I spent two nights and a little more than a full day here, and we made the most of it by criss-crossing through just about every street on the island, not wanting to miss a single building!
Our hotel, the Slussen Hilton, was located in a prime spot just off the island on the bottom of the map, a mere minutes' walk away. It was typical Hilton luxury all the way, with a mostly Scandic/European-style minimalism, and the room upgrade and Executive Lounge access made it that much better! I always luuuv a bit of luxury near the end of any trip!
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Here's a shot while on the shores of Gamla Stan, directly over the water and facing our hotel just across the bank:
Arriving at our hotel late in the afternoon, with the sun quickly creeping away, Kumi and I were on a mission. After freshening up a bit, our game plan for the next day already set, we went looking for, of all things... Cup 'O Noodles!!! Why, I haven't had one of those in at least ten years, with no great loss in my heart, lemme tell ya! I have no idea what it was, but I had to have Cup 'O Noodles, and perhaps even more surprising - Kumi felt the same way! By then, we were already dreaming of a hot bowl of beef pho or paitan ramen, but realizing our chances were slim to none, surely, there had to be a good instant noodle in any nearby grocery store, right?
Wrong.
Rejected, we walked over the short bridge to the old part of town, the island of Gamla Stan, to hopefully find the next best thing. I mean, forget about doing as the locals do. Forget about immersing ourselves into another culture! I was beginning to realize why the Japanese love coming to Hawaii, then look mostly for Japanese food to eat! After three weeks, we just needed a small taste of home, was all! With the closest thing being a Thai restaurant, we jumped at the chance, with Kumi dreaming of a hot bowl of spicy tom yum kung and myself, anything with a hot serving of Jasmine rice!
Called Siam, we were heartened by the respectable crowd on its street-level floor, which was mostly a bar/lounge, and descended instead down a spiral staircase of red brick into its much quieter dining room below:
Of the Southeast Asian countries, Thai was the most commonly-represented food type we've found, and we were definitely very curious to see how it would stack-up to Thai restaurants in Hawaii. With a staff obviously from Thailand, we were hopeful. Unfortunately, it fell waaay short. I mean, button mushrooms and the faintest hint of spice in their tom yum kung? Crispy, batter-fried fish in my fish curry? Mushy Jasmine rice? Besides the over-all taste of the curry, which was tasty but lacking in essential Thai herbs and vegetables, there was absolutely nothing that worked here for us, and quite truthfully, I don't think it would compare with even the worst Thai restaurant in Hawaii!
Still unsatisfied, we awoke the next morning intent on our original craving - beef pho! Scanning the internet, I found a Vietnamese restaurant that garnered some excellent reviews (but then again, so did Siam!), and it was only about a 15-minute walk away from our hotel, maybe 20 after checking and re-checking our map along the way!
Once inside, it was good to see an all-Vietnamese staff and crowds such that we had to share a table with another party of three. After grabbing our seats, I stepped to the counter to order:
"Two Beef pho please."
"No beef pho."
"Um, beef pho, you know, beef pho?
"No beef pho."
Now, I'm not an expert in Vietnamese cuisine, but I do know enough to know that you simply can't be a Vietnamese eatery without beef pho. What side of the moon did we land on, anyway?
Both of us reeling in shock and disbelief, we finally managed to ascertain, through a conversation of barely retrievable English, that lunch was a simple, 10-item menu, with pho emerging only for dinner! Thinking our cravings would never be realized and thinking we didn't walk 20 minutes for nothing, we settled for a few plates, Kumi with an order of summer rolls and myself with whatever the most popular dish here was, and that was, basically, an order of spring rolls:
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Can't say it did the same thing for us as would the dish we'd been craving the last two weeks, but it did do our bodies some good. Both plates, though humble and very much on the small side, were constructed extremely well, whether it came to the sauces, the perfectly-done Jasmine rice (unlike the night before!), or the mix of ingredients inside our rolls. They were good enough that we simply had to return a few hours later, when their batch of pho would be ready:
Being that I've never been to Vietnam, I guess all we could do was to compare it to Hawaii stuff, right? Hmm... side-veggies given in much less amount. No hoisin, only two hot sauces, one including the familiar Sriracha. Noodles perfectly al dente, and noticeably irregularly-cut - could they have been house-made? Bowl on the small side. The most important thing, its broth, was deep and tasty with beef stock but just a shade on the lighter side. All in all, it was a very respectable beef pho with perhaps one exception - a shortage of such luxurious fragrances as star anise, cinnamon, and clove. Like I said, I'm not sure how it is in Vietnam itself, but in Hawaii, any shortage of such herbs and spices will be flagged.
Still, the general feel we got from Nem Nem Quan was that there was definitely a lot of care and skill put into these dishes, just by the way everything was put together, and we were both yet satisfied after finally receiving our piping-hot bowl. We were also happy that there was great service and a super-friendly, English-speaking member of the family we could talk to without any language barriers. If you're ever in Stockholm with similiar cravings as we had, you'll definitely get your Asian fix here.
Aside from our two great Vietnamese meals, our single full day of Stockholm city was spent in the old part, Gamla Stan. Though Denmark is the home of Hans Christian Anderson and a pervasive fairy tale fever, this particular city was just as enchanting as any story-book fantasy:
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Yes, it was tourist central here, with arts 'n craft stores, espresso 'n chocolate cafes, small designer boutiques, family-run inn's, and restaurants galore, to name a few things, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Per chance, we happened to enter a store not unlike any other, with a name we couldn't hope to pronounce, and were commenting on the fine, modern decor mixed with touches of old-school inside.
A passer-by mentioned that the place had an even prettier floor down-below, and all I could say after seeing it was - we had nooo idea!
Descending down the narrow spiral staircase of red brick, much like the Thai restaurant we visited earlier, the scene soon opened-up to what could have, with maybe a few more old statues here and there, been a full-fledged museum! Walls in the deepest room actually date back to the 14 century and articles found inside, from the 13th century! Pretty darn cool!
After a full day in the city and Kumi's heels shot from the rough edges of its cobblestone streets, we freshened-up at the hotel and returned to a bustling tapas bar close-by. It was almost standing-room only, every seat in the house taken except for a tight, hidden corner of two seats at the bar - perfect! Judging by how busy the Tabac Tapas bar was and how few employees there were, I feared we may never get any help at all, but both our food and drink actually arrived in reasonably prompt fashion and with a good deal of friendly service. Tantamount, however, in a busy place like this, is the fact that you can't just sit back nicely and wait for someone to cater to you - you'll need to engage them and let them know you're there first if you expect anything at all!
Besides several pasta choices, sandwiches, and salads, mostly, there are a whole host of tapas for anywhere from about $3 to $15, which included fried smelt, potato w/cheese, bacon w/mushroom, and lots of seafoods, to name a few. Despite the look from the inside shot above, it was actually dark inside, dark enough for me to break-out a mini-light instead of drawing even more attention with a flash. Still, they were pretty terrible. From top left then clockwise, here's a boiled, baked octopus, shrimp scampi, stuffed mussels, and a vinegar/citrus-splashed baby octopus (see the cute little guy?):
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The only way I can describe these dishes is a bit rough, with fresh seafoods enhanced by lots of bold flavors like vinegar, citrus, and butter. The richness was a good thing, however, being a relative respite from the relatively benign taste of sandwiches, cold foods, and other meals so often found here. I mean, I guess in Hawaii, we're so used to a wide variety of strong tastes like Japanese shoyu, Filipino patis, Chinese hoisin, Korean ko-chu-jung, Thai spices, and even the evil luxuries of American fast-foods, among many others, so this added punch of flavors were indeed very welcoming.
They were all very small, but we actually planned it that way - there was still an Executive Lounge waiting for us on the top floor of the Hilton Slussen, with complimentary pupus (or that's what I call them!) and drinks!
Before leaving Sweden by air (we had had enough of trains!) to Oslo and our 3-day series of airplane rides back home, here's one final shot of just a small portion of the city at dusk:
Hope you're all having a great day! Coming is a great-little health food store my vegan brother recommended, as well as a Korean yakiniku restaurant virtually unknown by locals but extremely well-known within the Korean community, among others!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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